Pooran slapped with sus­pen­sion over con­tract snub

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC): XCITING WEST Indies Twenty20 bats­man Ni­cholas Pooran has been slapped with a sus­pen­sion by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), af­ter snub­bing his Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes con­tract for the up­com­ing Pro­fes­sional Cricket League.

The 21-year-old, who made his in­ter­na­tional in the re­cent se­ries against Pak­istan in the United Arab Emi­rates, opted out of his PCL con­tract in or­der to rep­re­sent the Khulna Ti­tans in the Bangladesh Pre­mier League (PCL).

How­ever, WICB chief ex­ec­u­tive Michael Muir­head said Pooran’s de­ci­sion would re­sult in a sus­pen­sion from WICB-spon­sored tour­na­ments for an un­spec­i­fied pe­riod.

“Ni­cholas Pooran has de­cided not to play for the fran­chise that he was se­lected for. All per­sons who are en­ter­ing the [PCL] draft sign that they will make them­selves avail­able and com­mit them­selves to play­ing for who­ever they are drafted by,” Muir­head was quoted as say­ing.

ECONSEQUENCES

“If you fail to hon­our that, then there are con­se­quences. The con­se­quence, ac­tu­ally, is that he won’t be able, for a spe­cific pe­riod, play for WICB spon­sored tour­na­ments.”

Pooran was se­lected for West Indies duty for the three T20s against Pak­istan af­ter im­press­ing for Bar­ba­dos Tri­dents in the Caribbean Pre­mier League Last Sum­mer. Ni­cholas Pooran launches a de­liv­ery from Nikita Miller for sixon the fi­nal day of the third round match be­tween Trinidad & Tobago Red Force and the Ja­maica Fran­chise in the WICB Pro­fes­sional Cricket League Re­gional 4-Day Tour­na­ment on Mon­day, De­cem­ber 1, 2014 at Queen’s Park Oval.

How­ever, the ag­gres­sive left-han­der has not played a first class game in two years and a re­gional 50-over game in three years.

He was kept out of the game for a year back in 2015 when he suf­fered in­juries in a ve­hic­u­lar ac­ci­dent and only re­turned to ac­tion ear­lier this year.

Muir­head said while Pooran’s sus­pen­sion would not make him in­el­i­gi­ble for se­lec­tion to the

re­gional side, it would cer­tainly hurt the player’s chances.

“It does not mean he can­not play in a West Indies team if he is se­lected, but it might lessen his chances of se­lec­tion by not play­ing in our tour­na­ments, but it still means that he could be se­lected if the se­lec­tors see it fit to choose him,” the Ja­maican noted.

The re­gional first-class sea­son bowls off next week­end with Hur­ri­canes host­ing Bar­ba­dos Pride at Warner Park in St Kitts.